The 'Garage dilemma' thread : Buy / sell / keep / shuffle my cars

This is a discussion on The 'Garage dilemma' thread : Buy / sell / keep / shuffle my cars within What Car?, part of the BHP India category; Stupid response may be:
Why not sell both you have 10 lacs in hand, no insurance & maintenance for couple ...

Why not sell both you have 10 lacs in hand, no insurance & maintenance for couple of years if you use Uber/ Ola & auto as needed. Once the financial situation improves buy a right car. Observing your usage you can do without a car but you need to prioritize what is important for you.

Just to clarify, no, my Micra XV Premium is from the earlier model without ABS and you imagine the car costed 7.5 lacs then almost at par with a Swift, Polo and Punto that time. Though it does have driver side airbag.

In my opinion, I think you're stuck in a very odd position. Retaining Vento means the higher cost of ownership and VW service. OTOH, retaining Micra will be cheaper but I'm really clueless about the service support of Nissan in the future since its a not so popular car around and Nissan is struggling. Also both the cars don't have safety features.
Buying new is never a good idea when you're in financial crisis. If you can afford, get the Figo. Yeah, it's not as solid as the previous model but still it's better than Marutis around and offers a relatively cheap ownership. Also, every model of Figo is equipped with safety features.
Also why don't you check used cars? Personally I'd pick up a used Global Fiesta or Ecosport and sell off both the cars instead of buying new.
Sreehari

Somebody has rightly said, live in current, learn from your past and don't worry for future. As Rahul Dravid had always said that you need to take one at a time and play the ball on its merit. Sell the Micra and cling on to Vento (dream car of many buyers form middle and upper middle class group).
Drive a scooter for fuss free life on city roads and enjoy the ride. Bhpians through their poll have voted for retention of Vento and I think all the car gurus have made the right choice.
Team bhp also advises users to stick to their old car rather than splurging on a brand new car unless warranted big time. to kya faisla hai aapka

Retain the Vento for yourself, and rent out the Micra, to be used for OLA / UBER. Don't just keep it, use it to make some cash.

If you absolutely must sell, lose the Micra and continue with the Vento (unless you have any real reason to suspect problems with it. And as somebody has advised, consider getting an extended warranty on Vento using the money from Micra sale)

1. Can I afford to keep both ?
2. Can I afford to keep at least one ?
3. Will I suffer social/psychological pressures, which is making me hold the cars ?
4. Do I really need both cars ?
5. Is my financial troubles short-term OR the end is still not clear ?
6. Is there any emotional connect to any particular car ?

If financial constraints is primary reason , it may make sense to dispose of that item which gives you more money in the pocket

If there is an emotional connect to a particular car, all logic might sometimes take the second seat - examine whether there are any

In any case, options 3 & 4 doesn't make any sense (at least financially) ie, to sell both and buy a NEW one. You will take maximum hit on the depreciation front. Many posts are there which talks about car being highly depreciating assets in the initial few years.

Are you open to consider pre-owned vehicles ? good hatchs will be available for about 5 lakh price range which will serve you well.

I was in a similar situation 2 years ago when dad passed away and my Ritz and Figo were 3 and 2 years old respectively. Financially there was no loss so I have retained both as selling them then would have resulted in huge losses then. Both have now done 40k kms and still drive beautifully and I really care for my cars well. Considering that I got the The Ritz Vdi for 5.5L OTR and the full loaded Titanium TDCi Figo for 6.8L I find that buying any decent top variant diesel hatch today will cost me no less than 8+L INR. So I will drive these cars for as long as they will go which I believe is 5 more years easily. Currently insurance bills are in the region of 6k and yearly maintenance is 9-11K for the Ritz and 6-7k for the Figo. There is no loan outstanding so I am living an EMI free life currently and I intend to be like that for a few more years atleast.

Now if financially keeping 2 cars is tough, sell of the one that has worse resale value and is more maintenance heavy to reduce future loses. I am of the opinion that both of them are pretty similar cars in capability with the added boot capacity of the Vento. Ofcourse sentimental reasons is enough to go one way or the other, but selling them both (which btw are not old cars at all, they still have a lot or residual life left in them) and getting a hatch worth 8+L makes no sense to me.

Why not sell both you have 10 lacs in hand, no insurance & maintenance for couple of years if you use Uber/ Ola & auto as needed. Once the financial situation improves buy a right car. Observing your usage you can do without a car but you need to prioritize what is important for you.

I saw few members suggesting the same, but a car is required in case of emergency like taking someone to hospital mid night which we never know. Waiting for a cab during these situation is something we should not regret later. Traveling after 8 pm in Trivandrum is difficult and I feel its must to own atleast a small car . Even weather in Trivandrum is unpredictable , its too hot or it will be raining heavily

This is mostly a heart vs mind scenario and many of you could term myself foolish. But on top of it, if you could chip in with some logical thoughts, I would be grateful and may become less foolish.

To begin with, you dont need a new car at all.

Im sure there are other, more important avenues currently which you will require to focus on. A new car is a terrible waste of money, if you already have 2 that are under 3 years old.

The Vento is a good car, fresh, sparingly used. The cost ownership will be far less than buying a new car and losing value in resale. No brainer frankly.
If it were a larger car, like an Innova which is not ideal to self drive in the city, it would make sense selling it.

Sell the Micra, keep the Vento and get these thoughts of buying ANOTHER car out of your head!

I suggest you keep the Vento and sell the Micra. VW cars age well and I think you should be able to run it without much fuss for atleast another 2-3 years. I see you mentioned about your liking for diesels, now what can be more fun than the VW 1.6

The Micra diesel is quite a responsive car considering the power/weight ratio and will also be easier for other family members to drive/park. With your usage, it would be better to off-load the more expensive asset, i.e. the Vento and invest the proceeds wisely.

If you wish to keep either of the car, I would suggest Sell the Vento and you can have a good 5-6L in deposit. This would really help in having some savings and emergency fund to manage till the time finances settle down and improve.

If you really wish to change the cars then sell both the Cars and buy a well maintained diesel for around 5-6L or less ? I feel keeping VW/Nissan/Ford is an expensive affair and not much gained. I suggest Sell both of them as in the long run you will lose much more money and wont get. Both VW and Nissan have issues with good service support.

Other option( though you wont like it) Why not consider a Petrol car if your running is less than 12-15K/Yr. I am suggesting this considering your running of around 12k/Yr. You will get a good petrol car within 5L which is much more easy to maintain and has good resale too. Diesel cars lose resale and also expensive to maintain post the 3 year period or post running of 50-60K kms.

Last edited by Sunsh!nes : 23rd May 2016 at 16:41.
Reason: adding more info

So it all boils down to
a) keep the Vento and sell Micra and struggle to find a parking space in the city
b) keep Micra and sell Vento and live with the crappy NVH
c) sell both and buy a new hatch but make an informed buy and have no regrets for another 7-8 years

I understand that you can live perfectly with one car and parking space inside the city is a problem . Correct me if I'm wrong.

Option (b) is certainly ruled out. Why would you keep a Micra and sell a Vento?

Option (a) is the best choice- If you don't need a second car, let it go. Expenses on Fuel + Maintenance + Insurance premiums are high. Also, you'll have INR ~4 lakhs in hand. Save a huge fraction of that amount for your family/next car. Use the little fraction of the cash for Ola/Uber/Autos to places you think parking will be a problem.

Option (c) is not the most practical as you won't get anything close to your vento. Also, you'll lose a lot on depreciation. Also, Insurance costs are high for a new car.

Don't worry about reliability, I think the Vento MT is good in that aspect. Switch to a FNG if you feel that the VW dealers are ripping you off.

So it all boils down to
a) keep the Vento and sell Micra and struggle to find a parking space in the city
b) keep Micra and sell Vento and live with the crappy NVH
c) sell both and buy a new hatch but make an informed buy and have no regrets for another 7-8 years

So here are my two cents, and I would be as practical as possible, maybe edging on blunt.

My sincere suggestion to you would be sell both the cars, and pick up a car which can do work for both, without burning a hole in your pocket for maintaining it.

Why sell both the cars?
well to start with, Vento and Micra both won't fetch you much value later on and to make matters worth, the cost of maintaining the VW and the resale value of Nissan are simply horrid.

Suggest you to sell both the cars and whatever you do, DO NOT buy the figo or the swift.

Looking at your daily run of about 12-15 kms a day, a diesel simply doesn't make sense. I understand you can not stand a petrol car because of your addiction towards diesel's torque, but with all due respect, with the finances in a crunch(your primary reason to sell the cars) this doesn't seem the time to indulge. You will have plenty opportunities in the future to indulge in a much better car which make you feel great while driving - but this clearly is not the time to think from your heart, but you should think with your head. What's the worse that will happen?? you might not enjoy the car's torque. that's a small trade off considering the benefits you stand to reap if you go with a petrol car. to start with a petrol car doesn't have as high a maintenance cost as compared to a diesel. with the current difference between the fuel cost, diesels only stand to be beneficial in cost of running if you are doing more than 40kms a day. till then you have unnecessarily paid a lac extra for getting absolutely nothing other than torque and better fuel efficiency figures (in the long run - considering your usage, you will never get to the point where the car saves you money on fuel cost)

Try the Honda Jazz. The car has acres of space, is as big as a hatch (saves you the trouble of finding parking space in city), has a big boot (can be used for the occasional runs to the station/airport), comes with the reliability of Honda, cost of ownership is pretty low. The downside?? well it is not exciting to drive at all. But then you don't need a much exciting car in the city for your daily commute. once you are able to manage the finances well, you can always upgrade to a much better car. But till then my honest suggestion is go for the Jazz, might save you a couple of lacs after selling both the cars, and even if you do decide to buy the car on finance, the money in your bank will be able to finance it without adding any extra burden on you.

hope you get out of this turmoil soon

cheers!!

ps. : and I am not suggesting you go for a new Jazz only. you can look in the used market as well. Go for the new one only if you think you can't handle the peer pressure of using a pre worshipped car. for all practical purposes, jazz has the best of both the worlds.